Junior Team Cleans Up in Minnesota

(November 30 – December 2, 2018) Northwood’s Junior Team flew to Shattuck St Mary’s School in Minnesota to play three games against three top prep schools, St Andrews College, Cégep André-Laurendeau, and Nichols School. The team knew that being on a 16 game win streak it is all about keeping things the same and staying focused so this string of games would be another challenge along the road for Northwood.

The team arrived on Thursday and practiced that evening at Shattuck. This helped get rid of the heavy legs and created good feeling going into the first game of the weekend on Friday against St Andrews College. The rivalry between the two schools has grown in recent years with SAC coming out on top in the last few meetings, so Northwood knew that it was a huge game in their schedule. It was fast-paced and intense throughout, but it was Northwood who scored first 8 minutes into the first period with a tip from Will Arquiett (Forward, 2019). Both teams continued to battle hard and some great saves from Northwood goalie Ryan Wilson (Goalie, 2019) kept SAC off the scoreboard. The majority of the second period was controlled by Northwood with goals from Cody Monds (Forward, 2019) and Reid Leibold (Forward, 2020) sending the team into the locker room with a 3-0 lead. With 20 minutes left in the game, Northwood knew what they had to do: continue playing hard and do all the right things. They did this and kept SAC from scoring until the opposition pulled their goalie in the final moments and SAC were able to pull one back. The final score was 3-1 Northwood, a result that meant a lot to the players and coaches who suffered losses to SAC n the last two seasons.

Saturday brought a big and physical opponent that was difficult to play against, Cégep André-Laurendeau. Northwood used their skill and speed to their advantage to beat the opposition 5-2. Goals for Northwood game from Arquiett, Monds, Cole Leal (Defenseman, 2019), and Tommy Bannister (Forward, 2020) had a pair.

Going into the third game of the weekend on Sunday the team knew that it was important to not only get a win but to play well and the right way and end the trip to Minnesota on a high note. This game would be against Nichols School. The Huskies began the game flat and went down a goal. But this sparked a bounce-back and at the end of the first period, the score was 3-1 for Northwood. The Huskies continued to dominate the play, adding to the scoreline to make the final score 7-1. The goalscorers were Cole Leal (Defenseman, 2019), Daniel Colabufo (Forward, 2020), Leibold, Barret Ott (Defenseman, 2019), Monds, and Bannister tallied another pair. Nick Kazmouz (Goalie, 2019) also had a great performance in net.

The performances from the weekend meant that the team is now on a 19 game win streak, an impressive statistic given the strength of this part of the schedule. They hope to continue their success in front of a home crowd this weekend with two games against Springfield Pics. The Junior Team is ranked #3 in the nation. Follow them on Twitter.